Was tempted to vote for Eye of the World because I adore reading that book. Book ultimately voted for Lord of Chaos for the introduction of Mazrim Taim, Dumai's Wells and the quote "Kneel and swear to the Lord Dragon, or you will be knelt". Parts of the book frustrated me (Rand getting captured for a start) but the best of the book made up for the low points.

 

I'd struggle putting them all in order however. A lot of what happened in books 2-5 and 7-10 have merged because of reading them all together. I do prefer the first few books to the later few (specifically 7-10, because I enjoy 11-13 though they do have their highs, such as the Cleansing). The later books could have done with more Taim.

Edited March 9, 201115 yr by Threepy

Knife of Dreams,

 

The moments with Perrin were crap, but his embrace of being a warrior, if not a leader as yet.

 

Every POV that involved Mat.

 

And "Vows," and "The Golden Crane" are two of my favorite chapters.

Eye of the World. I'm not sure if any other of the books captured my imagination as much as that one. Thought some are more exciting.

Next would be a toss up between tGS and tSR.

I'm not sure about the rest, but I know last is CoT. It had some great stuff in it, but the book almost put me into a coma.

If I had to pick one, I'd say The Fires of Heaven. Two of my favorite characters, Min and Suian, finally get to have adventures on their own a little, and Rand returns from the Waste and begins his slow political conquest, beginning a new era. And you start to truly feel the Tower division. And Mat gets to be the hero completely unexpectedly, with Couladin.

 

Still, The Great Hunt, The Dragon Reborn, The Gathering Storm are all right behind it. Eye of the World isn't too far behind that, and Lord of Chaos could almost be my number one if it didn't take so long to get going. The Black Tower. I love the Black Tower.

 

But you know, this is getting complicated. I'm also feeling a need to defend Path of Daggers and especially Crown of Swords. All I can really say is I got through those two very quickly and they obviously hooked me, and I'd been waiting for the Seanchan to come back into the story, and they both have pretty good dramatic endings. And my favorite moment in the series might just be the end of Winter's Heart; I feel about that the way many seem to feel about Dumai's Wells (which I also liked.)

 

Plus I came to the series recently, I've got the whole "don't even remember which book this happened in" syndrome a lot of the time.

Hmm,

 

1. TSR

2. FoH

3. TGS

4. ToM

5. LoC

6. TDR

7. KoD

8. WH

9. EotW

10. TGH

11. NS

12. CoT

13. ACoS

14. TPoD

 

The top 4 clearly in that order. 5 and 6 a tossup but LoC winning with Dumai's giving the edge. 7-11 are interchangeable for me and 12-14 in that order.

Definitely Eye of the World. I loved discovering this world alongside the characters. After that, Fires of Heaven, because the pacing is great. I think more happens in that book than any other 3.

Light, I can't understand a thing with all those abbreviations, I'm really not good with this.

 

Anyway, my favorite books are The Gathering Storm and Towers of Midnight, it's a tie. The characters are more interesting, there's a lot of action and stuff happening. It really is a good change from the previous books. And there's the part with Rand on Dragonmount at the end of TGS. I could relate so much to his feelings in that moment, I didn't think I would ever feel so close to Rand. So emotionally speaking it's a very important scene to me.

My favorite is by far Eye of the World.

 

I just started a reread and am already almost half way. I just love how young and innocent the characters are. They are embarking on a very big journey and are still clueless. I would rank this up there in one of my all time favorite/greatest books. I still love the rest of the series but starting this current reread (my 7th of this book) I still find myself entranced and captivated by the adventure, excitement, danger and inexperience of the characters.

 

Although its a big part of the story and I am all about it, part of what I like about the early books is that the characters are so...weak. Rand isn't suffering from the sickness, insanity and blasting everything in sight. It is so cool to see the Mat, before he becomes the battle-knowing, world experienced leader of the Band. Perrin is well, Perrin. I really enjoyed his character up until he becomes a mindless Faile troll. I know some people like his character and others don't but the vast majority of the series, I kinda wish a heck of a lot less screen time was given to him. About the best part of reading his parts were hoping Faile would die and he would turn to the shadow. Personally, I think that would have been totally sweet. But avass, when it is all said and done, my second favorite scene from the entire book is where Perrin crafts the weapon. Absolutely epic in my mind.

 

I could go on for awhile as anyone here could. I am a huge fan of Fain. He is an epic villian and my only complaint is that he gets far to little screen time. I really wish he had played a bigger role.

 

Anyways, I vote for EoTW as my favorite.

Edited March 23, 201115 yr by Goramier

I voted for Towers of Midnight and mainly did sop because of all the plot line tie ups that really made it enjoyable to see conclusions to some very tricky themes that had been going for a while. I include the whole Perrin and whitecloak/ andor theme to have been very well done and highly entertaining as well as tied up appropriately finally. I always wanted to know how perrin would eventually have to own up to those two deaths in eotw. Also th scene where bornhald saves him was absolutely stunning. Also the scene and battle at maradon was by far the most epic scene in te series to date and gives insight and elucidation into how rand might act during tarmon gaidon. The copying of the terangreal and the agreement between mat and elayne about the dragons was very intriguing. The death of the gholam was a fitting and awesome conclusion as well as the epic adventure through the tower of ghenjei and rescue of moraine was by far one of the better parts in the series. Not to mention the fight of the white tower in the world of dreams mixed with perrins fight with slayer really uped the anty int terms of pace, action, and development. The meeting between rand and egwene was priceless to see her put in her place. At last but not least was the intro with Fain and the ending scenes with redveiled aiel, cameyln burning, lanfear showing up in rand's dreams, and the possible fall of lan at tarwins gap combining to make this by far the most intriguing book in the series i think as well as the most action-packed and insightful. The best books will leave amazing cliffhangers at the end to ensare you perfectly for that last one to come and this was done as brilliantly as ive ever seen. Props to Jordan for all his brilliant ideas and to Sanderson for being able to implenment them with such finesse. anyway my two cents

I went with "The shadow rising" for reasons already eloquently stated but really all books from 2 - 6 inc. were the highlight of the series for me with a much needed revival then with "Knife of Dreams".